


The Price of Knowledge

by She_Who_Only_Knows_War



Series: Clairvoyant [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: A Character Who is Able To See the Future, Angst, Clairvoyance, Copious Amounts of Texting, Cutting, Foul-Mouthed Characters, Gen, death of a family member
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:16:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4339013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/She_Who_Only_Knows_War/pseuds/She_Who_Only_Knows_War
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron has a gift. It's also a curse.<br/>Brooke hates his gift as much as he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Knowledge

**Author's Note:**

> I intend to tell this story in three parts.  
> I think it'll do me some good to try a new setting. Still drama and death and angst, but by the end of this series, we should be seeing a happy ending.

"So you can see the future?" Asks Brooke on a cool morning while they're waiting for class to start. Miss Pahlia is, strangely, late. She's never late.  
Cameron nods, taking notes quietly.  
"Prove it," Says Brooke.  
His deep green eyes meet her green-blue. "Mister Collins is going to come in and tell us Miss Pahlia's dog has been run over and she needs time to collect her faculties."  
Brooke has to laugh at that. She's heard people tell her crazy shit before, but this is ridiculous.  
And then Mister Collins steps in. "Settle down, class."  
"Where's Miss Pahlia?" Asks one of the goody-two-shoe kids sitting up front.  
Mister Collins adjusts his tie. "She's lost her dog this morning and is quite upset about it."  
Brooke's blood runs cold as she glances at Cameron. " _It's a fluke_ ," She mouths at him.  
He shakes his head but she refuses to believe him.  
In the middle of class, he passes her a note that reads, _Your mom is going to call during lunch._  
Brooke is surprised when she does.

 

"So what else does this gift do?" She asks as they walk home.  
He shrugs. "If I try to force it, it doesn't come. And sometimes - I don't know how I know - I'm not supposed to do anything about it."  
"Like?"  
He looks sad then, "Warn Miss Pahlia not to let Max out."  
Brooke thinks it's a little strange but doesn't ask anything else.

 

He takes her by the arm some time later, "That guy you're hanging out with, you should go to camp with him."  
Brooke gives him a weird look. He runs a hand through his hair. "You're going to need it."  
The way he says it makes her hair stand on end. "Why?"  
He shakes his head, indicating that whatever's to happen, he isn't supposed to do anything about. "Don't worry too much about that Mission Trip, either."  
Now Brooke knows something is about to go unspeakably wrong.  
She prods at Cameron for days until he starts crying during lunch. She feels bad for nagging him to tears and lets it go.

 

"I need you to start spending more time with me," He says for the fifth time in the last two weeks.  
But Brooke is busy with school and trying to get her sister back in line and her friends and the coming trip to Romania.

 

A week before Romania, Cameron grabs her by the arm again. "I know you don't have time for me anymore. But I need you to know-" He bites his lip hard enough to draw blood. "Try to love Maggie, okay? I know she's not doing right, but please. Just try."  
Brooke agrees to it.

And then Maggie runs away with Thomson, the guy who was supposed to be in love with Brooke's friend, Angela.  
She's angry, has done everything to keep her sister from doing something stupid. Feels like everything is a big, painful lie. That everything has come apart the seams.

Because everything she thought she knew, she really doesn't.

 

She wants nothing to do with Maggie, has decided that she doesn't care about her blood anymore.  
Until her Godfather, Mason, calls. "They found them."  
"I don't care," Says Brooke.  
"I guess no one's told you yet," He says.  
And something inside of Brooke breaks. She knows.  
_Oh God_ , She thinks. _Oh please. No._  
Mason takes her to the Hospital where everyone has erupted into chaos. Maggie is gone.  
And everything Brooke is, was, _would have been_ , goes with her.  
She spends weeks in a daze, hoping - wishing - praying that it's a dream. That none of it is real.  
No one seems to even fathom the pain. They move on, worry because she hasn't after two weeks, two months, and three days.  
Is that really all her sister was worth?

 

When Cameron takes her gently by the arm this time, she shakes him off. "You knew."  
His eyes are shimmering and watery. "I'm sorry."  
" _You knew!_ " She says again. " _ **You knew!**_ "  
He meets her eyes. "I did know."  
Her lips thin, she shoves him. "Go away. I don't want anything to do with you."  
"Brooke, you have to understand that I-"  
She turns on her heel and disappears around a corner.  
She doesn't care what he wants. Or why he never said anything. But she knows he's liked her. She knows he's had a crush on her since the fourth week and yet, let her date other guys without saying a word.

 

She stops going to church. The razor blades begin their call. A call Cameron has always helped her to ignore. The world is too much to bear. It's all too much.  
When she takes the cover off the blade, her phone lets out a little ding.  
_You don't have to_ , the text reads.  
She deletes it, settles herself onto the counter and starts writing her pain into her skin.  
Her phone dings again.  
_Please don't._  
_Screw off_ , She sends back.  
_You won't feel any better._  
_I would have felt better if you had told me_ , She sends.  
He doesn't text her back that night.

 

She meets a man named Jared and she instantly likes him. He's hot and wants her. She needs a distraction. Wants some adventure.  
She takes him up on his offer to stay the night at his house.  
Her phone dings while they're driving down her driveway.  
_You're going to regret this_ , Cameron's text says.  
She knows she's glaring at her phone. _When are you going to listen to me when I tell you to back the fuck off?_  
_This isn't you. You aren't yourself. Please go home._  
_Dad doesn't care where I go_ , She texts. _Buzz off._  
"Everything alright?" Asks Jared.  
She knows he's really only concerned about whether he's getting laid tonight.  
She smiles at him. "We're good."  
He smiles back. "Awesome."

 

At his house, she prepares herself for a long night.  
And finds Cameron was right.  
"I'm sorry," She says. "Nothing's wrong with you. I'm just not ready."  
"Well, get ready," He says. "Because I picked you up, took you out, and now you're just being unfair."  
Brooke backs up as Jared grips her wrist and fear jolts through her spine.  
"You know," She says, "you're right. Let me go get cleaned up and I'll be happy to pay you back for tonight."  
He grudgingly releases her and she scurries to the bathroom, snagging her bag on the way.  
Her phone is on silent but she checks it.  
At ten-forty p.m., Cameron had texted her:  
_Don't try the window. Go further down the hallway. There's a back door._  
She wonders, sometimes, if he even knows she's checking her texts.  
Another one appears and she opens it:  
_Waiting...._  
So, she grabs her bag and slowly makes her way down the hall, thankful the floor doesn't creak.  
The door is locked, even with the deadbolt taken out.  
Her phone vibrates.  
_On the knob, dummy._  
Slipping out and into the night is easy after that. Cameron's car is idling a short distance down the road.  
She takes off her heels and runs, full tilt to the small, grey bug.  
Jared does come running out the door and Brooke feels fear but Cameron pulls a little closer and she's quick to pull the door open, slamming the door shut behind her and Cameron peels out.  
When Brooke can't see Jared in the rearview anymore, Cameron says, "Sometimes, I wonder what you'd do without me."  
Brooke thinks about leaning over and biting his ear off.  
_He brings out the worst in me_ , She thinks.  
Eyes the color of emeralds flick to her every now and again.  
"You know I'm still mad, right?" She says.  
"I know," He says.  
"I'm never going to be your girlfriend."  
He shakes his head. "I don't think of you like that."  
She scowls. "Don't lie."  
"I'm not." His hands slide from ten-and-two on the steering wheel to seven-and-five. Brooke once was told that'd be safest in a car accident-  
"I hate you."  
He is immovable. "I'm sorry you feel that way."  
She realizes she's being cruel to the guy that just saved her, that is probably pretty crazy about her.

She doesn't care.

"You think that this one time-"  
"It's not the first time," He says, eyes sternly on the road now.  
"Nothing is going to make up for your inaction."  
"Then you're just going to have to come to terms with the fact that I have a reason for everything I do and don't do. This isn't about love," He says. He looks at her fully when they stop at a red light. "I hate the very way you choose to breathe. I hate the things you do when you think no one is watching."  
She stares, mouth agape.  
"But I was chosen. And so are you."  
She gives him a critical look. "The fuck are you talking about?"  
"I can't reach my full potential without you, dumbass. But I have to let you go through the deep, deep valleys, before you can see the great heights."  
"Stop the car," She says when he starts to accelerate.  
"No." His hands are white-knuckled on the wheel.  
She makes a grab, causing the car to swerve. "Stop the fucking car!"  
"Not until you're home! Do you _want to die?_ "  
"Why do you care? It's for the best if I have to hear any more of this ' _Chosen_ ' bullshit."  
He shakes his head in disappointment. "I knew you weren't ready to hear it."  
"Then why'd you tell me, Mister Omnipresent?"  
"Because once you know the truth, you can't live in a lie comfortably."


End file.
